Queen of Tarts Review of

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again… How have I never read Jessica Scott before?! Her stories have been on my radar for months and I’ve heard great things about them so when this novella came available, and a Christmas one at that, I jumped. I got pulled into I’ll Be Home For Christmas and Vic and Nicole’s story. I’ll definitely be reading more Jessica Scott!

This book was a quick read but in the 120+ pages I felt like I knew the characters. The hero Vic and his wife Nicole were real to me and I laughed and cried with them. Oh! I want more of some of the secondary characters too.

Vic is in the U.S. Army and gets deployed to Baghdad in December of 2007 leaving his wife Nicole at home. She does her best to be strong and I admired her so much. But she just really wants him to come home for Christmas.

I got a kick out of Vic, aka Carponti’s, behavior during his deployment. He cares for his guys and does his best to keep morale up. The dynamics between the soldiers in his platoon felt real, the tension and danger made me cringe sometimes. Through it all Vic’s love for his wife bled off the pages.

A few of my fav lines…

♥ She kissed him fiercely. “I’ll be waiting over here for you to get done being all caveman.”

“I’ll show you caveman later,” he said with a grin….

♥ He lost himself in the feel and taste of his wife. The beauty of her faith in him and the solid feel of her love.

He had her.

Nothing else mattered.

I loved this story. Vic and Nicole’s journey resonated with me, the fear and love, loneliness and hope. I was aching for them. This story hit me close to home. My guy’s in the army and, though he’s not deployed right now, it is a long distance relationship. I’ll Be Home For Christmas is a contemporary romance gift that delivered on it’s holiday promise. Go unwrap it for yourself!

There’s nothing in the world Army Sergeant Vic Carponti loves more than his wife and his country. Smart-mouthed and easy tempered, he takes everything as a joke . . . except his promise to come home to his wife, Nicole, for Christmas. As he prepares to leave for his latest deployment into Iraq, Vic will do everything he can to shield his beautiful, supportive wife from the realities of war . . . and from his own darkest fears.

As a career army wife, Nicole Carponti knows just what to expect from her husband’s tour of duty: loneliness, relentless worry, and a seemingly endless countdown until the moment Vic walks through the door again. But when the unthinkable happens, Nicole and Vic’s bond is tested like never before and changes everything they believe to be true about the power of love and the simple beauty of being home for the holidays.